The photoshop factory has started working. A video is viral on social media which claims that Prime Minister Narendra Modi insulted the National anthem while it was being played today at the Independence day function at the Red Fort. The video shows that during the national anthem, Modi is drinking a glass of water, when in fact he should have been standing still, paying his respects to the national anthem.
The video was shared by a page called “Bolta Hindustan”
The video shows that right in between the national anthem, i.e. when the verse containing “Punjab, Sindh” was being sung, Modi drank water. The impression given is that Modi drank water when the anthem was being sung. At that the time of writing this article, the Facebook post had over 16000 shares and over 3600 reactions.
The same video, with a different audio, was shared by a person who claims to be ex-General secretary of Gujarat Congress IT cell:
https://twitter.com/_shriraj/status/1029688303669272582?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
So what is the truth?
A closer look at the video and one can realise firstly that Modi’s action of drinking water is being shown on a loop, not only at the verse containing “Punjab Sindh”, but also at “Dravid, utkala”. The video is frozen, slowed down etc, whereas the audio keeps on playing. This is a clear-cut indication that the video is not genuine.
The conclusive proof comes from watching the original feed on youtube.
This clip is after Modi has ended his speech of nearly 90 minutes. He is seen exhorting the children to shout patriotic slogans. At 1.37.47 minutes in the video, Modi reaches for a glass of water, and almost as soon as he does that, the national anthem starts. Quickly realising this, he keeps the glass back. This happens in the span of 3 seconds odd.
This moment has been maliciously edited and placed much further in the national anthem to spread falsehoods about the prime minister. It has been depicted as if Modi drank water well into the national anthem.
Many on social media have already shared this malicious video blaming the Prime Minister for insulting the National Anthem and that it was also furthered by someone from Congress, comes as no surprise.